Millions of minimum wage workers will be getting a pay raise with the new year.

By PennLive Letters to the Editor

Colin McNickle’s opinion piece “Raising minimum wage would hurt small businesses” (Sunday, 2/10/2019) no longer holds any water. Perhaps his “think tank” is not aware that twenty-nine other states and the District of Columbia already have higher minimum wages for 2019 than Pennsylvania. Is there any proof that a statistically significant number or percentage of the employers in those states and D.C. have cut their hours or jobs or limited promotions because of the additional costs? If there is, let us see it. If there is not, let’s put that old excuse away in the dead letter file.

A parent with one child working 40 hours every week all year at the current Pennsylvania minimum wage would not earn enough to meet federal poverty income guidelines. Being complacent or indifferent to the needs of the poor is not just a lack of charity. It is an injustice and moral issue.